This invention relates to a mobile apparatus adapted to form a duct for liquid flows through telescopically coupled pipes, particularly for irrigation purposes.
It is a well known fact that the conveyance of liquids presents, in any fields of application, including firefighting systems, marine, mining, oil-drilling and industrial plants in general, not to mention construction equipment, substantial problems. In fact, inefficient methods are often employed to that end which, while implying high installation costs, are insufficiently reliable in operation and short-lived. Moreover, conventional systems or apparata have heavy personnel requirements, which also aggravates their running costs.
A field where the transport of liquids, in particular water, is a major concern is that of agricultural irrigation.
For irrigating on plains, it is current practice to utilize, additionally to the traditional ground surface networks, several systems, automated to a greater or lesser degree and either stationary or mobile. In the instance of stationary systems, a widely accepted one is a system comprising a fixed central pivot shaft carrying two arms which are made to rotate by the reaction force of the water ejected from irrigators mounted to the arms themselves. In a frequently adopted variation of that system, the rotating arms connected to the central pivot shaft and carrying the irrigators are mounted on wheels intended for rolling over the ground surface under the propulsive force provided by the water itself or by an electric drive motor.
It will be appreciated that a basic drawback of such stationary systems resides in their high irrigation costs per acre, and mobile equipment, namely equipment that can be moved from one lot of land to another, have been developed, the more widely used whereof comprises a hydraulically operated reel around which a hose is wound to serve as the piping means for the water to flow to an irrigator unit located at the hose end. However, that type of equipment involves, similarly to other mobile apparatus, high running costs, owing to the hose, which has a constant throughout and rather small diameter with respect to the irrigator flow rate capacity, generating a high load drop, while it is heavy and awkward to handle, and quite expensive on account of its rather complex technology.